Normalcy
by SethSolare
Summary: Taking place in the middle of volume 9, Keitaro, still with a cast on his leg, struggles with the fact that Naru still hasn't told him how she feels. All the while, the other girls are struggling to deal with his fixation on her.
1. 01 Photographs and Friendships

"_Normalcy" chronicles the time period in volume 9 of the manga between parts 76 and 77. 76 is when Keitaro and Shinobu go out on a date. Part 77 is where we learn about Seta and Haruka's relationship. I'm attempting to stick to story and stick to character. However, I like to deviate a bit, especially in Motoko's case, mildly in Haruka's. Everyone else is pretty much the same. I'd like to comment now that this is very short and very expository. Anyway, have fun. By the way, _"_This indicates internal conversation_" (Thinking)

- - -

Normalcy  
01 – Photographs and Friendships  
SethSolare

"OW! That hurts!" Keitaro whined. "Don't wrap it too tight"

"It's your fault, you know. You should really stop walking in on them. If you keep this up, you'll be wearing that cast forever," Haruka responded.

Keitaro's wounds from his flight that evening weren't shaping up to be fun. As wonderful as it is not to die, it still hurts a lot, apparently. After a good two minutes of air time, Keitaro finally landed at the steps of teahouse. And when he landed, his aunt was standing there with some bandages.

"It's pretty amazing, really. She hadn't punched you out of the springs in two days. I have to say, that's a new record," Haruka said.

"Like you're actually keeping track. Besides, she kicked me," he said matter-of-factly. She glared at him for a second and punched him in the arm. A blinding pain shot up past his shoulder and exited through his mouth. "You didn't have to do that!" he said as she walked away.

"You need to start being more appreciative of women. And speaking of women, I heard you blurted out some crap to her a while back. You know, when you were hospital after the thing at Tokyo U," she said, pointing to it.

"You know about that?" Keitaro tilted his head to the side, a bit puzzled.

"Some of the girls don't keep me out of the loop. Kitsune, especially," she said as she began preparing some tea. Most of the girls didn't talk much to Haruka. Mainly, she kept to herself in the teahouse. Kitsune, however, loved to gossip. And, since most of her stories dealt with Naru and Keitaro, she had to tell someone. "Has she said anything back?"

"We're talking again, if that's anything to be proud of. We talk about school and Shinobu's food. But really, that's it. Nothing exciting. Nothing about her even rejecting me."

"Well, you know what that means right?" Haruka said as she placed a cup of tea in front of Keitaro. He looked up at her, speechless. "It means that she doesn't hate you. Which means that she either, A, likes you. Or, B, only wants to be friends."

"Is there a C?"

"Well, she could hate you."

"Right," Keitaro looked down at the tea, discouraged. It wasn't a big deal that they hadn't been able to talk much about being in love. Or that they hadn't had a non-awkward conversation recently. It was just that lack of knowledge.

Haruka looked back at Keitaro. She couldn't help wondering if he had ever seen him actually sad. Depressed, even. It was new, since he had either been freaking out or just tired. She thought back to Seta. At times, when he showed up in town, they would talk secretly. Haruka didn't want any of the girls or Keitaro in her personal life. It made her depressed enough thinking about him. Worse yet, he had already been in town for several days. Every day, he had been trying his best to talk to her. And every day, she did her best to avoid that.

After a few seconds, Keitaro looked up to Haruka who had taken a seat in front of him. "Conversations don't feel normal anymore, you know? She and I try to talk. We're studying together and we just try talking. Talking about food, classes. You know, stuff we used to talk about. Everything just feels awkward."

"I don't really know what to say. But, what I do know is that I know exactly what you're talking about. And really, all your conversations from now on are going to feel strange." Haruka stood up from her seat and went up to her room above the teahouse. "Please, Keitaro, lock the place up. I'm sorry I can't chat. Tired." She raced up to her room before she started crying.

_"I almost cried in front of Keitaro. This is stupid. I'm a grown woman. I shouldn't be pining over an idiot like Seta anyway. He's selfish, inconsiderate, and… a jerk._ _Doesn't think about anyone else. Doesn't care about how_…"

She slid into her room in case Keitaro might come up. But she heard the door closing outside and the lights from downstairs were gone. She sneaked over to her window in the darkness of her room, peaking past the side to see Keitaro slowly climbing his way back up the stairs back to the house. After a few seconds of watching him, she attempted to compose herself as she walked around her room.

Turning on the light next to her bed, she sat down with an old photo album. She flipped through pages and pages of photos, some of Keitaro's childhood, some of the girls when they first came, pictures of grandma Hina. Towards the end of the book, she had placed about four pictures, each with their own page. Each one was of her and Seta.

_"Every time he comes up, we talk. We talk and talk and the only thing that happens is that we feel stupid. And I feel like crap. And nothing ever feels normal."_

She sat in her bed thinking about nothing else except her awkward conversations. All the while, she felt her face burn up and her eyes hurt. Closing the thick photo album, she tossed it on the ground before turning off the light in her room and laying down.

--

"_She just left. I hope she's alright," _Keitaro thought as he hobbled back up the stairs in his crutches. He slid open the door to the house and walked inside. He guessed that the girls were still in the bath since the downstairs light was still on. "_I guess I can just go to bed."_

He turned to go up the stairs and up to his room. In his mind, he thought about Haruka's words. It wasn't always going to be abnormal for them. But, constantly, he always thought that his desire for things to be normal again would be stripped away by the fact that he had made that confession to her.

It looked bad enough that he went on a date with Shinobu. Granted, it was a nice date. He had fun. And she was so sweet. And as much fun as she was, she was still too young. If she were older. "_Oh what am I thinking? Shinobu's in middle school. That's just wrong."_

A second after turning the corner, Keitaro bumped into Kitsune. "Hey, you alright?" she asked.

"Heh, you know me. I'm practically indestructible," he said, faking a smile.

_Wow, he's really screwed up over this. And it's all her fault, too. If she hadn't been such a crappy friend to him, he wouldn't be all mopey like this._ Kitsune smiled at him. "I'm going to get something to eat and head up to Naru's room. Want me to tell her anything? Hmm?"

"What do you mean?"

"That we're in love, silly!" she said as she wrapped her arms around him. At this, Keitaro flailed his arms around. He let out a scream, as pathetic as it was, that was short, and just overall sounded abnormal for him. "Oh please. You know I'm kidding. Have a good night's rest, Kei," she said as she pulled herself off him and quickly dashed downstairs.

Keitaro stared at her fleeing body as she disappeared around the corner. "_Weird."_

After collecting his crutches, he slid open the door to his room and went inside. It was pretty boring, as usual. On his table, he left his little print club album out. The night before, he had been staring at it, reminiscing of the two photos he took with a girl. And since the second photo, some of the girls took print club photos around the town and stuck them in the book when he wasn't looking. Even Motoko was in it.

However, next to the book, oddly, was a yellow doll. Naru's Liddo-kun sat on the desk, though a bit droopy. Sure, the stuffed animal was old, but it had a lot of meaning for both of them. Next to the doll, was a small note.

"I'm sorry," Keitaro read the neat handwriting. It was in English, too. He felt funny reading her English handwriting. It was just nice knowing that it was something that they shared, studying English.

Keitaro stared at it for a few more minutes before looking at the plywood covered hole in his ceiling. Above, it seemed that shadows were still moving across the room. He went back to the desk and picked up Naru's note. He flipped it over and grabbed a pen.

- -

"_I wonder if he's back yet._"Naru paced around her room. After punting him out of the springs, she felt pretty terrible. "_I mean, he _did _walk in on us. But…_"

She sighed heavily turning toward the hole in her floor. She noticed light coming out of it, now. She simply stared at it for a bit, frozen. It was difficult enough trying to get that apology in. She had hoped something cute like that would make him forgive her.

After pacing a bit longer, she heard footsteps outsider her door. A figure stopped and knocked. "_He could've just gone through the floor._" She smiled at the door as she waited, hoping it would make him a bit more anxious. She started counting to ten in hopes of making him sit it out. But, at three, the door just opened, and she felt stupid.

"Geez, way to open the door," Kitsune said, as she took a seat on the floor, beer can in hand. In the other, she held a sandwich that was already half-eaten. "Want some?" she asked, presenting both to Naru.

"No. I just thought you were uh, you know. Whatever. Anyway, what do you need?" Naru asked nervously.

"What? Need? Nothing, really. Just wanted to talk. About you and Keitaro, really." She took another big chunk out of her sandwich.

"What about him? He deserved to get kicked out like that."

"I mean that you're stringing him along. And it's really mean. _AND _you're hurting him. A lot," she said in a low voice. And at that point, Naru just stared. She stared at Kitsune for a few seconds, realizing that she had just blurted out something very emotional, something unlike Kitsune.

"What do you mean?" Naru asked shakily.

"What do I mean? I mean that he told you he loves you and you do absolutely nothing. You do nothing, which means you're being mean to him. And he doesn't deserve that. If you don't love him, tell him. At least that frees him up for me."

Naru, staring at her best friend, felt dumbfounded. Kitsune hadn't said anything like that, before. _Does she really like him?_

"I'm not being mean to him. It's just," she stopped for a second. For the past few months, she thought about what he said. Constantly, she'd go back and replay that night. He sounded panicked, not sincere. It wasn't the way he was supposed to say it. "It's just that I feel like I can't talk to him. I can't tell him because, you know, what if things change? I mean, they're already crappy now."

"What do you mean by that?" Kitsune seemed irritated. And Naru was simply taken aback by her attitude.

"I mean, uh, like, nothing's," she stopped again. She thought and looked for the word, "normal. It's not normal. We talk and it's just uncomfortable. Like, we can't say a word to each other and not feel weird." Kitsune's expression changed, slowly.

"What do you mean, 'weird'?" Kitsune asked softly.

"Just, weird. Like we can't talk or anything. I want to give him a response, but I really don't know what it could be. I don't know what to think."

"I think you should try and be honest. Don't you?"

"I want to. Really. But, you know what? I don't want all of this to change. I don't want us

to be together now and then screw things up later. I don't want there to be this weirdness between all of us and the others. I don't want to hurt him, Kitsune."

"You should try harder not to. I mean, he might end up not wanting to be with you if you keep that up."

Naru felt more defensive at that statement. "Do you think I want him to leave me? Of course not. And you know me, there're like, no times, ever, that I have said that I want to be with someone. But you know what? I can't take it, I need to be with him." Naru collapsed to the floor.

"But?" Kitsune asked, quietly.

"But it's too hard. I don't want him to reject me. I want to be with him. Rarely do I say that I want to be with anyone. But him? I just don't know. I have no idea what to do."

Kitsune finished eating her sandwich. At this point, she realized she had pushed Naru too much. "I guess I'll go to bed." And Kitsune stood up. She walked over to Naru and kissed her on the forehead. "Go to sleep. No use in thinking about it tonight, hmm?"

As much as she wanted to feel sad, she didn't cry. She just felt bad. And she sat on her floor staring at her closed door thinking absolutely nothing.

Then, from behind her, the piece of plywood slid off. From the floor, Liddo-kun climbed out and sat on her floor. Without a sound, the board slipped back into place as Naru crawled over to the stuffed animal. When she picked him up, though, Liddo-kun dropped a piece of folded paper from his hand.

"I'm sorry, too," she whispered as she read the terrible handwriting.

- - -

_Alrighty. It's been forever since I've written anything on I haven't had the motivation, in a long time. But, I spent a the past few weeks re-reading the manga from beginning to end. Twice. I wanted to write something that seemed interesting. And, as usual, I like the romantic/drama stuff more than anything._

_I should get to the point. Anyway, I spent a lot of time studying relationships and how people work with each other. I've always wanted to write something that shows the depth of why people want things. I've been wanting to studying the psychology and sociology of human relationships and communication. _

_This particular story involves the desire to have a normal relationship. Usually, when there is a weirdness between two people that have a "history," as they say, there is this awkward time when it becomes difficult to talk. Most of the time, you have conversations with that person. You want, more than anything, to be able to talk to them, and that's it. Just talk. But every time you talk, you just feel stupid. Conversations about "your day at work" or "how hard school is" or "how good your lunch was" become difficult to talk about. You feel as though you can't say anything and feel okay about it._

_What's worse, at some point, it becomes difficult to say, "Hello."_


	2. 02 Admittance

Normalcy  
02 – Admittance  
SethSolare

The next day, Keitaro started his day early by sitting. He sat out on top of the deck where Shinobu, who had apparently been up long before he was, had already hung the clothes out to dry. He stared at the sheets waving around in the wind. It was so nice, that morning. It was barely sunrise and it was already a beautiful day.

He stared out at nothing for a bit until he heard the door open. From the stairs, he saw Motoko come up for her morning practice. Motoko had been lax in doing laundry and Shinobu had just decided to wash everything today. Today, instead of her usual kendo uniform, she wore a green tank top and shorts. And when she noticed Keitaro, she suddenly felt very awkward with him seeing her like that.

"Uh, good morning, Urashima," she greeted him. She smiled with a bit of twitch at the side of her mouth. Keitaro waved her a reply and smiled back. Drawing her sword, Motoko began swinging at air for a bit.

"So how's it going, Motoko?" he asked her.

"Just… practicing," she said, her voice seemed to break a bit. She felt entirely too awkward and uncomfortable with Keitaro just sitting there. After a bit more silence, she stopped, "Um, you want to help?"

"Me? Oh, uh. I don't know. I should probably stay off this leg and stuff. You know. All this activity and stuff is just pushing back my removal date," he said. He patted on the cast. "If nothing bad happens to me, it's coming off today. I'm going to the doctor's in a bit."

"I understand," she said softly, and went back to practicing.

_He is my landlord. And he is in love with Naru. There's no use in trying to get him or hope that he loves or even likes me. _

She felt a bit depressed. It wasn't always something that made her sad. But at peaceful times like these, she wished that Keitaro would at least look her way. Not many men were as nice as he was. His awkwardness and constantly erratic nature was strangely attractive to her. _He's so cute, like that._

"I also understand you and Naru still have not talked about your incident at the hospital," she said, calmly. She stared straight forward, still swinging at air.

"Huh? Oh. Wait, how do you know about that?"

"I heard you from the other side of the door. My hearing is much better than the others'," she responded.

"Oh. Well, yeah. We haven't talked at all."

Motoko stopped swinging for a second and looked directly at him. _Look at me! Why do you want to be with her so much? I would never string you along like this._ "It's mean of her to do this to you."

Keitaro stared down at his cast a bit. He said nothing for a bit before trying to form some words. "I guess she doesn't. She would have at least given me an answer by now."

"Maybe. But Naru is far more unwilling to show what she feels to anyone." _Compared to me._

"I guess. She might feel something, I don't know what, though. I just hope it's at least a good thing."

Motoko sheathed her weapon and began walking back toward the house. An overwhelming feeling of sadness came over her with his words.

"She will talk, eventually. And if anything, you have many others that would love to be with you," she said as she descended the stairs of the deck. She saw Keitaro throw a quick glance at her, as if he was puzzled, as she walked back into the house. Closing the door, she leaned up against it, closing her eyes. She shook her head and slid down the length of the door to sit on the floor.

_He doesn't understand. _She felt weird. That was the most she had ever explained her feelings to anyone. _He's nice like that_.

She felt herself falling asleep until a light tap on the shoulder woke her up.

"Oh, um, Motoko. I need to get outside. I need to take down the clothes. I'm sorry for waking you," Shinobu said, standing above her. Motoko stood up slowly, feeling a bit weak.

"It's okay, I was just a bit tired and-" and then the door opened.

"Sorry, I didn't know you were out here. And good morning, Shinobu," Keitaro said as he passed between the two conversing girls.

"Good morning, Sempai!" Shinobu exclaimed as he walked past. He turned and smiled back at her, waved, and then kept on going. Shinobu turned quickly toward the door and blushed.

"Have a good day, Motoko," Shinobu said, slightly embarrassed, as she walked outside.

_You even have her, as young as she is. You have all of us. All of us would have you, and you choose the one girl that would not be able to decide if her life depended on it. _Motoko's head hung down a bit as she stood in the hallway.

_I have no idea why that makes me like you more._

--

Naru sat outside in the open-air bath. She sat quietly as the water surrounded her body. An early morning bath was enough to get her mind off of talking to Kitsune. After getting her Liddo-kun back from Keitaro, she held it up in the air staring at him. Keitaro, a wonderful guy, had touched it. Her precious Liddo-kun, her one memory of her childhood, had been rediscovered by the person who started that memory. And now, Liddo-kun was taking a nice bath with its owner.

"I don't know what to do," she said to it. It was always weird for her when she started talking to Liddo-kun, but not many people wanted to hear her at all. Most of the girls had their own agenda, and simply rubbing their nose in the fact that he chose her of them would be mean. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to say anything at all.

"You should probably be honest with him," a voice responded to her. Naru stood up quickly, looking around her. Through the soft fog, she saw Haruka smoking a cigarette. "Mind if I join you?"

"No. No, not at all." Naru sat back down. Haruka never seemed like the person she wanted to talk to about these kinds of things. Granted, Haruka was far more experienced, but it seemed awkward bugging someone like her with her problems.

"He really does care about you, you know," Haruka said, plainly. "And it's not like he's a bad guy, either."

"I know, I know. But it's not that easy. I mean, how're we supposed to have a normal relationship. I mean, he's my landlord," Naru explained.

"I know who he is. That doesn't change the fact that he cares about you. He hasn't wanted to be with anyone else. He wants you, and that's it. Even Mutsumi. She can't have him. Only you can, and that's why all that other stuff doesn't matter."

"It does matter," Naru said, solemnly. She hugged her wet Liddo-kun to her body. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. In her mind, she imagined how happy she would be. All the time they could spend together would be blissful. Holding hands, kissing, staring at each other. It would make her happy. "I've had plenty of boyfriends. But Keitaro is special. I'm not going to just say yes and hope I don't stomp on his heart like every other guy."

"You can't keep him waiting this long. It's been months, Naru. And I personally think it's horrible of you to keep him in the dark like this," Haruka's voice became agitated. She hated people who played games like this with other people's feelings. And it wasn't enough that someone that she believed was more than that could do this, but she was doing it to Keitaro. "_You're turning into Seta. Always lying like this_," she thought.

Naru, after hearing her words, turned to face Haruka. Small tears formed around her eyes as she stared at the other woman. As much as she hated to hear those words from her, she knew it was true. She wasn't hurting herself as much as she could possibly be hurting Keitaro. "But, it's just too hard." Naru began crying softly as Haruka moved toward her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. But you have to say something. Really. If you don't love him, at least do him the favor of telling him so he isn't tortured by not knowing," Haruka said as she brought Naru close to her.

"And what about Mutsumi? She's practically in love with him. And if he had met her before first, they would be happy together. She might even love him more than I do. How is that fair?" Naru sobbed into Haruka.

"It's not about fair, Naru. No matter what the outcome _could _have been, this, here, is the outcome. He loves you. And, if you just keep waiting, you may end up losing him to someone else."

Naru looked up at Haruka, tears still in her eyes. After a few seconds, she peeled herself off the other woman and wrapped herself up in her towel. Naru looked back at Haruka with a look of unbearable sadness. She tried to compose herself and attempt to look as strong as Haruka. No one, though, could ever be like Haruka. "Thanks." And Naru walked slowly out of the bath taking Liddo-kun with her.

As she left the bath, Haruka turned away from the door. "_If you lose him, you'll regret it for the rest of you life, Naru. Trust me. And you won't be able to ever trust him or yourself ever again._"

Haruka let out a small tear from her eye before simply sitting and soaking.

- -

Naru got dressed after her bath. Her room was a pretty big mess, considering that she had been in school for so long. Since summer vacation started, she had just been unmotivated to even get started on it. "_Keitaro hasn't been up here since he got hurt. We haven't really done a lot of anything._" She looked at herself in the mirror. She ran her hand down her cheek with a solemn face. "I really miss him," she whispered to herself.

She looked over at the covered hole. Her wet Liddo-kun sat on the table, drying. She walked on over to the wood panel and moved it over. She took a deep breath before flipping her hair over the edge of hole and stuck her head through.

Keitaro was doing a bit of studying with his math books laid out on the table. His cast was tucked under the table as he wrote. "_He looks really focused. Maybe it'd be a bad idea to bother him right now,_" she thought. She slowly backed out of the hole. But then she realized the got her long hair caught in the cracked wood. "ACK!"

"Huh? Oh, Naru. You okay?" Keitaro asked as he looked up from his work. He noticed her fiddling with her hair and stood up. "Let me help."

"Oh, no. It's fine. You know girls and our hair. We're used to this!" she said, freaking out a bit. "_Wow. That sounded stupid. Way to sound like an ditz, Naru._"

Keitaro helped her, regardless. After untangling her hair from the floorboards, she stared down at him. And he smiled back up at her.

"_I want to stay like this. Happy with him. Aside from him being a total pervert, he's just wonderful,_" she said to herself.

"_She's just… beautiful. I wish we could just stop being so weird about things and be happy._"

"Oh, shouldn't you be getting your cast off today?" Naru asked.

"Yeah. I'm leaving for the doctor's in about 2 hours. I can't wait, you know?" Keitaro sighed a bit. "I might miss it, though. Su left a lot of funny jokes on it and I haven't been able to read the back of it yet."

Naru giggled a bit and smiled. It suddenly became silent, though. "_Wow. Uncomfortable. This sucks. Maybe…_" She thought for a second and jumped down into Keitaro's room. "Wanna study a bit more?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm just brushing up on the old stuff. I haven't been in school much because of this thing," he said. Keitaro moved back over to the table and sat down; the cast came down with a big thump. Naru plopped down across from him as usual and pulled over one of the many books on the table.

After a few minutes, she realized they hadn't said a word to each other. Her feeling of awkwardness came over her again. She felt like she couldn't speak. It was just too strange to even say a word. She shifted a bit in her seat before letting out a fake cough.

"Oh, Naru. Are you okay?" Keitaro asked her. He felt weird asking her something like that. Of course something was wrong. He had no idea what to talk about. After flying through problem after problem, he couldn't even read the question in the book with her there. He couldn't figure out how to even fix what was going on.

"I want to talk about something," Naru said, after taking a deep breath. She looked away from him, a bit embarrassed. Her legs were to her side and, now, she couldn't stop looking at them.

"Oh, uh, wh-what?" Keitaro stuttered a bit. He felt a bit anxious, hoping that she would mention the hospital. He wanted, more than anything, for just a response, whether good or bad.

"It's just that, have you noticed we're just, you know, weird? We don't talk as much, anymore. And," she halted for a second before looking back up at Keitaro. "And I miss that. I miss that we can't talk, Kei."

"It's just so weird to talk to each other, Naru." He didn't know what else to say. "_I can't bring up the hospital. It'll just make this worse._"

"I don't know what to say, either. I know you want me to give you an answer. You want me to tell you how I feel and I," she stood up quickly. "I can't do that yet. I don't know what to tell you." She turned around toward the hole and tried to climb back up.

"Wait! Just, hold on a second."

Naru stopped and looked down at the floor. She felt an uncontrollable desire to just cry. And with tears, she turned to Keitaro, "I don't want to hurt you!" she screamed at him. "Why? Why do you have to be like this? Keep pushing me and all I can do is worry about hurting you!" she cried so hard that she suddenly felt herself fall to the floor.

"I-I'm sorry." Keitaro kneeled to the floor as best as he could and held onto her. All she could do was just cry into him.

"No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't treat you like this," she said softly, between sniffs. "I just don't know what I feel."

"I can keep waiting, Naru," Keitaro said calmly. She looked up at him. And he simply wiped away her tears. "I can wait, Naru."

She smiled. "_Thank you for understanding. I promise you, I'll tell you how I feel._" She wiped the rest of face with he hands and looked at the clock. "You should probably get going. You're pretty slow with the cast on."

"Oh, yeah. I guess so." Keitaro helped Naru up. He smiled as she climbed her way out of the room and up into her room. Before sliding the board back over, she flipped her head over the side and smiled.

"I promise we'll be able to be normal, again." Keitaro smiled back at her before she disappeared.

- - -

A few days later…

- - -

"Do you think they'll be okay. You know, Haruka and Seta?" Keitaro asked.

"They make such a nice couple. But, you know, it's weird. Haruka's never cried like that, ever. Guess he brings out the weird in her," Naru laughed.

"I'm sure that she still loves him. She'll be happy, soon enough."

Keitaro and Naru pulled themselves out of the pool. Keitaro was unbelievably happy that night. Granted, his Aunt Haruka had basically sort of accepted Seta's proposal, which was confusing at best, but that wasn't why he was happy.

"So I get a maybe?" he asked Naru as she helped her out.

"Yeah. I don't really know what else to say. I'm sorry I'm being vague," Naru responded.

"No, no, it's nothing. I'm okay with maybe. I mean, I thought you didn't even care."

"Didn't care? Why would I not care? I mean," Naru stopped for a second and stared at Keitaro. "It's you. Of course I care."

Keitaro smiled at her. Simply. He had been waiting for her for so long that it had felt weird hearing her be so honest. It was unlike the explosive Naru he was used to. Something was different about her now. She glowed with a bit of happiness that he hadn't seen for a while. This was like the "I got into Tokyo U" happiness. In fact, it seemed more like a "I got into Tokyo U and can keep my promise to Keitaro," kind of happiness.

"So can I try and kiss you again?" he asked her.

"No way! You're gonna suck my eyeballs out!" she teased.

"I can do it! I just… I need some help," Keitaro said embarrassed.

Naru smiled at him. "You'll get a second chance, eventually." She was happy enough that her 'maybe' was enough to make him happy. She loved that he was happy. She loved that she could be a total spaz with him again. And it was enough that she could at least feel happy for as long as the relationship lasted. But in truth, she wanted it to last for as long as he loved her.

- - - -

_Alright, short story. I really didn't plan this one out at all. I just kinda wanted to write something that would get me into the writing again. Sorry it's not much, to those who expected a lot from me. However, I wanted to write something short and expository about people. Like I said, in my previous notes, I like how people interact. And I really just wanted to put down on paper the emotions that people might feel in this kind of relationship._

_I guess if you're talking about the arrangement of stories, part 77 of volume 9 in the manga comes RIGHT before this. And part 77 of the manga starts with his cast coming off, which supposedly happens later on in the day, according to the fic._

_Also, I plan on writing an AU soon. I really want to write a story with Kitsune and Motoko in love. Blah blah blah, don't give me crap about Yuri. I like the pair. They seem to compliment each other better than Keitaro and Naru do. I might even pick up my old story which I never finished, "Pink Camellias." IE: if you're reading this, you know what Pink Camellias is about._

_By the way, that was me hinting that I would start it back up._

_SS_


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